Pairing similes both verbal and visual, a child characterizes each member of her family—“My daddy is as jumpy as a SPRING and as playful as a SPINNING TOP. He is as fun as a PARTY FAVOR. But sometimes he’s as stubborn as a KNOT in a ROPE”—then presents a paint-and-collage portrait in which each named object is incorporated as a facial or other feature. Freer of the strained cleverness that hobbles his What Presidents Are Made Of (2004) and What Athletes Are Made Of (2006), this is more likely to draw a young audience, and Piven includes both starter lists (“Things that say ‘smart’: ruler, numbers, owl”) and endpaper galleries of examples as enticements for children to create portraits of their own. (Picture book. 6-8)
